LaVar Arrington: After the Super Bowl, restaurants and bars can count on skill games

There is nothing quite like Super Bowl Sunday.

It is that one day when devout football fans mix with agnostic game watchers, packing tables in bars, restaurants and social clubs. As a former NFL player, it is awesome to see the craze around my favorite sport.

Beyond the entertainment, it’s a lucrative time for bars and restaurants as people shell out money for chicken wings, pizza, subs and other football-watching favorites.

Then comes the Monday hangover. Not the kind you think. The financial one. After a busy day of wall-to-wall customers, many restaurants and bars are back to business as usual, which for some means struggling to make ends meet.

Because we can’t have big-time sporting events on TV every day to bring in crowds of people, places have to look for other ways to supplement their income. For some, it’s karaoke or trivia nights. For others, it’s skill games.

These interactive electronic games, which can be won with patience and skill, are fun to play and have become a lifesaver for bars, restaurants, VFW and American Legion posts, volunteer fire companies, and other fraternal clubs.

While the Super Bowl is once a year, skill games provide a steady source of income every day.

At a time when small businesses are facing hardships because of the skyrocketing cost of supplies and struggling to pay enough to keep good staff, skill games are helping to pay the bills.

When I travel to my native Pennsylvania, I visit places with skill games and hear firsthand what the games have done for establishments and communities.

There is the American Legion that financially supports its members who are sick and stays open 365 days a year to ensure those who have served our country always have a place to go. There is the family-run bar that has been around for 80 years and might have closed during covid if it had not had the games. And there is the restaurant that pays for an employee 401(k) with funds from their skill games.

In addition, we wouldn’t see as much charitable giving in our commonwealth without skill games. Locations use the supplemental income from skill games to sponsor youth sports teams, donate to food banks and help build memorials in their town squares.

But don’t just take my word for it. A recent Franklin and Marshall College poll of state voters found that 60% of respondents said they would favor regulating and taxing skill games.

That is just what should happen. A bill in the state General Assembly would tax and regulate skill games, something the governor supports. Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to add skill game tax money to his proposed budget to help pay for state programs.

And, Pennsylvania Skill’s game terminals are made in the state. They are manufactured in Williamsport and parts come from businesses all over Pennsylvania. This means a lot of jobs are generated from making skill game machines.

Regulating skill games is a win for small businesses, as well as Pennsylvania as a whole. And from my football days, I know what it takes to win. It takes the kind of teamwork we need from lawmakers who have the best interests of our commonwealth at heart.

It’s time Pennsylvania gets in the game to help small businesses and fraternal clubs and passes legislation that regulates and taxes skill games.

LaVar Arrington is a former Penn State and NFL player who commentates for Fox Sports radio.